Rug hooking with Anya Paintsil
Image: Anya or Anum, 2020, Anya Paintsil.
Anya Paintsil, who will be hosting a rug hooking workshop for Selvedge in May, was recently nominated for the prestigious Kleinwort Hambros Emerging Artist Prize 2021. The award seeks to acknowledge and celebrate artists who have been active on the art scene and whose career would benefit from the visibility and financial support provided by the Prize. The candidates are British nationals or UK based, 35 years or under, and with a body of work that shows significant originality and coherence.
Image: Anya Paintsil, Ni yn unig, 2020. Punch needle, acrylic, cotton and human hair on hessian. 39" x 70"
Based in Manchester, Anya is a Welsh and Ghanaian artist who works primarily with textiles. From rug hooking to embroidery, her assemblages evoke tactile tapestry on the one hand, and constitute semi-sculptural interventions on the other. Frequently using weaves, braids and other hair pieces (as well as her own hair), Paintsil weaves debates around race and gender into the very fabric of her work. Playful and profound, flippant and forceful, her practice engages the language of fibres — of all kinds — with interrogations of materiality and political personhood.
Image: Anya Paintsil, Mam, Mair a fi, 2020. Wool, acrylic, cotton, human hair and synthetic hair on hessian, 38 x 35 inches.
We’re delighted that Anya will be hosting a virtual workshop for Selvedge on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 May where she will be teaching participants the art of rug hooking and how to transform scraps and non-traditional materials into unique rugs. Participants will learn the basics of rug hooking, focusing on the use of the latch hook tool and will have creative control over whatever they wish to create during the workshop using the tools provided. Participants will be sent a materials pack but the workshop is a great way to repurpose scraps from other projects and a good opportunity to experiment with non traditional materials. Anya frequently uses human and synthetic hair in her work and suggests you could include things like old clothes or plastic bags.
Read more about Anya Paintsil our article Top of the Pile which featured in a recent issue of Selvedge, Issue 99 Home.
Find out more about Anya’s rug hooking workshop on the event page: Rug Hooking, Virtual Workshop with Anya Paintsil